In The Palms of Your Hands

Wall painting, Cathedral of Saint Benedict, Gualdo Tadino

It's a great thing to see a building carried in somebody's hands, particularly when you are standing in the building depicted - for example the one above the entrance doors of the cathedral in Gualdo Tadino (province of Perugia, shown above).

When I came home I searched through my picture library to find some good versions of buildings in the palms of hands. It's a theme I always look out for, I get a lot of inspiration from architecture in stained glass, the varied ways that windows are shown in stained glass windows. 

Above are depictions of four real buildings: St. Cedd holding the beautiful 7th century Chapel of St. Peter-on-the-Wall, Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex: St. Hilda of Whitby holding the Abbey in Bridget Jones' Kempe restoration at Ripon Cathedral: The Verger's window at Sheffield Cathedral by Christopher Webb: St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague, in one of the Josef Cibulka windows made for the building in the 1930s.

Of course there are also the characters who are recognisable by the fact that they are building carriers. Below, St Barbara with her tower and two versions of Solomon with the first temple in Jerusalem. The painted building in William Peckitt's 1780 York Minster window (below centre), showing the temple literally in the palm of Solomon's hand, I find particularly satisfying.

Most inspirational for me are the depictions of whole towns as entities, the boundary walls holding buildings together on a slice of landscape. We drove around to find a good viewpoint for drawing the Umbrian hill town of Spello, one that would show the shape of the town and the little enclosure at its peak. Fantastic to find a painting in the church showing the whole town so clearly, and one in the gallery showing Spello from our viewpoint changing hands.

Spello from the north in the church: from the south in a painting by Grecchi (c.1610): below, one of my drawings from the south

The British Society Of Master Glass Painters

Here is the programme for the BSMGP discussion day, & details of how to book a late place.     See you there!

Circular yellow

Circular Yellow                                                                  Detail of window in the Morris Room (tearoom), V&A Museum

"Circular Yellow", as I call it, is the type of ex-front door textured glass that I have hanging around in the studio waiting to be used. I have more often seen it installed in mid twentieth century churches, imparting a machine made and frankly repellent yellow glare. I think of it as the poor relation to crown glass windows, or the circular backgrounds that William Morris and Philip Webb made for the firm's stained glass windows. 

Yellow - or "gold" to make it sound more attractive - can really overpower the other transparent colours. In the most lovely crown glass windows, my favourites are in the Doge's Palace, Venice, rows of pale pastel glass circles convince you they are in the most perfect windows anywhere. 

Inside the Doge's Palce, Venice                                                                         Chapel window, Gualdo Tadino, Umbria

However, in Umbria recently, I found three good examples of "Circular Yellow". The first, a chapel window (above right): in combination with other machine textured glass the circles looked good. The second, a view through a connecting bridge (below left): higgledy-piggledy with the direction of the circles but a good yellow/pink combination going on. The third in the huge basilica of Santa Maria Degli Angeli (beneath Assisi): I was shocked to see lowly "Circular Yellow" in such a lavish interior! However one side chapel (below right) was decorated with all kinds of golds and yellows, the strong glow from the semi circular yellow roof light above was really effective even on a dull day.

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Gualdo Tanino                                                                                                   Basilica of Santa Maria Degli Angeli                                                                                                

Two Types of Rose Window

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Early morning drawing of the Basilica in Assisi                   Cathedral of San Rufino, Assisi

The rose windows in the buildings of Assisi are particularly beautiful. Painton Cowen, writing in 'Rose Windows' calls them "Wheels within wheels...The wheel finds its greatest expression at Assisi". The one that I drew on the facade of the Upper Basilica of San Francesco (above left, dated c.1250) "faces the rising sun - exactly the opposite of most other wheel or rose windows." Another beautiful, west facing and earlier example is on the facade of the Cathedral of San Rufino, with carved figures holding it up.

It's the geometry in these windows that is much more interesting than the little bits of stained glass they contain. And so fabulous to see them made into a curtain pattern, complete with troupe l'oeil beam and hangings, in a fifteenth century fresco in the church of San Francesco in nearby Montefalco - the design comes with a yellow background on one wall and blue on the other.

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C15th frescoes, Chapel of the Annunciation, San Francesco, Montefalco, Umbria

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My design and photo of sandblasted wall with mosaic band, Leeds General Infirmary 1997

The type of rose window that I've used a lot in my own design work is made from intersecting circles. An example shown above is from Leeds General Infirmary: I did this commission in 1997 and I think it must still be there as it was sandblasted into the wall of the entrance rotunda. I loved this technique which I never had the chance to use again, I also love the intersecting circle patterns but will definitely be making them more complicated and wheel like in future designs.

The simple circle pattern cropped up in a local doorway and in the balcony outside Santa Chiara, Assisi (both below) where there is another intricate "wheel within wheel" window and a wonderful view of the setting sun.

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Resolute Beginnings

'Resolute Beginnings' was a title that I always liked given by one of my fellow art students to her mass of smashed up and refired glass pieces. In this case it refers to drawing with colour, which I never do. So, for a trip to Assisi, Umbria, Italy, I bought a new box of watercolours and set off with resolution. If in doubt I draw the view through the window, this green view (below) was what I could see when sitting up in bed.

 New watercolours                                         View from my bed                                      On opening the door

Through the door there was a balcony with a beautiful view of the mountains to the north east of Assisi. The camera captures the rhythms and shadows of the balcony, the ink drawings, one example below, are better at getting into the contours and details of the landscape.

On the last evening I went as far as painting the sky from the end of the balcony. As the sun set on the other side of the building there was a riot of colour in the sky and briefly across the illuminated landscape. Phthalocyanine and cinereous blues, even dioxazine purple, more useful than I could have imagined.